One Delegate's Experience

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Getting Certified

Last Sunday evening – the night after I was elected – I got my first email from Cassi. She’s the state party’s “Party Affairs Director”, a job title that seems to include “delegate wrangler” as part of its description.

After the usual congratulatory happy-talk, she briefly described the certification process. The forms we filled out after we were elected will have their info processed by “the DNC’s certification software.”

Our hotel is the Home2Suites next door to the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and rooms will cost $356/night plus tax. Reservations can only be made thru the state party, and that will start in mid-June.

We were encouraged to make our travel plans as soon as possible, and then given a sketchy schedule.. enough information to make travel plans. There will be a “delegation welcome party” on Sunday night the 24th, so we’d want to be in town by then. We’ll check out of our hotel and catch a train home the following Friday, the 29th.

Then she talked about the state convention on June 3, and a meeting of the Wisconsin delegation after that convention.

I sent a reply the next day. Since the state convention is in Green Bay (a five-hour drive from La Crosse) and we don’t have a car, I explained to Cassi that this would be a hardship, and expressed hopes that this wouldn’t be a problem.

The other thing I decided to do was to open up a new email account for DNC-related business. I anticipate a lot of emails before, during and after the convention; so it feels prudent to give them all their own mailbox. So my other request to Cassi was to change my “official” email address as a delegate.

I also mentioned that Rozie would be coming with me, and wondered what convention activities (if any) she would be able to participate in.

I heard back yesterday afternoon. No worries on not getting to the state convention or correcting my email address in the database. As for what Rozie can do, the news was encouraging:

For our delegation’s spouses/ guests, they will be allowed in all of the WI delegation’s free breakfasts and any WI delegation specific parties. You’ll have to register her on the survey I will send around in June for booking hotels and things. Typically guests are also allowed in many of the afternoon caucuses and meetings. They will not be allowed in the evening speeches though, without a credential. Typically the DNC will give each state party a couple of extra guest badges. They haven’t told us if/ how many they will be doing this year, but WI likes to use these by raffling them off every morning so that spouses and guests have an opportunity to at least see some of the program.

Late yesterday afternoon I got an email with instructions to fill out a form for the “Certify” system. It was all on Google Forms, but I had to jump thru a few hoops to open a Google account under my new email address. Once I got to the form, it asked for all the same information I’d provided three times already. Oh, well.